


Bad Days Come

by CastielFollowMe



Series: Single Dad Shiro Verse [36]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Anxiety, Gen, Overstimulated Keith, Overwhelmed, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-24
Updated: 2017-03-24
Packaged: 2018-10-10 03:27:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10428117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CastielFollowMe/pseuds/CastielFollowMe
Summary: Everyone has bad days, even Keith. His just take a lot more out of him  than other people.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: "hello! i hope youre doing well today. i understand that you have been very busy and you probably have DOZENS of requests in your inbox, but i was wondering if you could write up something detailing single dad shiro handling bby keith's first major temper tantrum? please feel free to take as much time as you need or refuse outright, i understand! i love your work either way!!!"

Keith was not happy, no sir, he was not.

              First, he’d woken up late and his dad had to rush him in order to get to school on time. Then at school he realized that he had forgotten to pack his sweet snack so all he had was a plain, boring lunch. Then he’d gotten yelled at for fighting with another kid for teasing Hunk. And finally, his daddy had been late picking him up because of work.

              Overall, his day was rough and Keith was not looking forward to it ending. After all, why should the day jut end after everything that Keith had been through. He was still in a dark mood by the time that dinner finally rolled around and Shiro was starting to catch on.

              Shiro knew that Keith would have bad days every now and again. He knew that a regular day for Keith was much harder than for others, so bad days were always going to be worse. It was on days like this that Shiro wished he could take away all of Keith’s struggles and misery, but even he knew that Keith needed to have these days in order to learn and get better. He couldn’t protect Keith from everything. Though Keith’s sour mood was much worse than it had ever been before and it was a bit worrisome for the young father.

              “Keith, aren’t you going to eat any of your dinner? It’s going to get cold.” Shiro asked gently during dinner, when Keith hadn’t taken a single bite of his food. Instead he was just pushing the food all around his plate and slapping his fork against it with a scowl on his lips. Keith snorted and continued to push his food around.

              Shiro frowned. “Keith? You need to eat. Once you finish you can go to your room. I know it’s been a tough day for you.” Shiro said softly but Keith only growled to himself and slapped at his food.

              “I wanna go now. Don’t wanna eat.” Keith said between clenched teeth. Shiro sighed wearily and continued to eat his dinner, hoping that Keith would soon follow. He couldn’t just let Keith go hungry after the day he had.

              “You need to eat _something_ first. If you can eat a few bites for me, then you can be excused.” Shiro replied causing Keith to scowl even more.

              “No. Wanna go now.” Keith hissed and practically threw his fork across the table. It skittered across the table and fell to the floor across from him. Shiro almost choked on his dinner and dropped his own fork while Keith glowered.

              “Keith! No, do not throw your stuff. That is not okay.” Shiro said, rushing to pick the fork up. Keith only kicked his feet out, sinking down into his chair. When Shiro picked up the fork, he noticed Keith shoving his plate across the table, attempting to toss it off the table with his fork. As quick as possible, Shiro grabbed the plate, leaving Keith to scowl again.

              “Stop it right now. That is not okay. It’s rude to throw your food.” Shiro reprimanded softly and sat down with Keith’s plate and fork. Keith groaned and kicked again, this time hitting the bottom of the table. In his chair, Shiro took a breath.

              “Keith, I understand that you must be frustrated but your behavior will _not_ help anything. I need you to please calm down for me.” Shiro made sure to keep his voice soft and calm, while Keith’s behavior only became darker.

              “No! No! No! Don’t wanna. You don’t know!” Keith hissed, voice slowly rising in volume until he was practically yelling at Shiro. Shiro swallowed, watching as Keith got more and more aggravated by the second.

              “Keith Shirogane, you will _not_ yell at me. I am not yelling at you, so you will not yell at me, young man.” Shiro said sharply, though his voice still remained quieter than Keith’s. However, Keith kicked the table once more and balled his hands into fists.

              “No! No! Don’t yell at me!” Keith shrieked, hands balled up at his temples. Shiro sighed and tried to straighten Keith in his chair so he would not fall off. Though, once he touched Keith’s shoulder, Keith jumped back violently and jumped out of his chair.

              “Keith, I’m not yelling at you. I want you to please lower your voice.” Shiro said but Keith only stamped his foot.

              “No! Stop yelling! It’s too much. No! No! No!” Keith shrieked again and again, grabbing the ends of his hairs and pulling harshly. Shiro recognized this as one of the signs that Keith was becoming increasingly stressed and tried to keep Keith from yanking all of his hair out.

              “Keith, please, no one is yelling at you.” Shiro said, trying to grab his son’s hands only for Keith to pull away harshly. “You are the only one yelling and that is unacceptable.”

              “No! Stop it! No!” Keith yelled loudly and finally let go of his hair, once Shiro had a hold of his wrists. When he couldn’t grab his hair, Keith began to swing his legs wildly _attempting_ to kick Shiro as hard as he could. Momentarily surprised, Shiro let go of Keith’s wrists and Keith swung wildly. Until he managed to hit Shiro on the shoulder. It was nothing and Shiro barely felt it, but he was more in disbelief that Keith had tried to hit him.

              “Leave me alone! Stop it!” Keith cried and swung again, while Shiro attempted to get out of the way.

              “Keith! No! We do not _hit_ anyway. Even if we are mad – you know that!” Shiro said sharply and took a deep breath through his nose. “You _know_ we do not hit.”

              “No! No! I don’t care!” Keith yelled and swung and kicked at Shiro again. Shiro managed to grab a hold of Keith’s hands again and held Keith away from his own body. Shiro was still in some disbelief that Keith was trying to hit him, actually _trying._

              “You know better than that.” Shiro warned quietly, still holding Keith’s struggling body away from his own. “This is unacceptable behavior. I understand that you are upset and you would probably like to be alone, but you do _not_ hit anyone. Not me. Not your friends. Not anyone.” Keith continued to shriek and try to hit Shiro.

              “Keith!”

              “No, no, no! It’s too much! Too much!” Keith almost whined when he started yelling at Shiro. Surprisingly, Keith’s strength wasn’t waning and he was keeping up steadily with Shiro. Shiro huffed as he attempted to keep Keith’s movements under control.

              “Keith, stop this. You do _not_ hit! Do you want to be in trouble with me?” Shiro finally asked and pulled Keith closer. He was careful to be gentle and merely guided Keith towards him rather than yank and leave a mark. “If you cannot calm down, I’m going to send you to bed right now. No desert. No story time. No cuddles or kisses.” Shiro sighed sadly when Keith sagged and weakly kicked at Shiro.

              “No! No! Not fair!” Keith shrieked and his hands clenched up into fists again. “Not fair! Not fair!”

              “Not fair?” Shiro asked. “What’s not fair is that you’re trying to hit and kick daddy and you don’t think there is anything wrong with that. You’re trying to _hurt_ daddy.”

              Keith struggled some more, his furious yelling turning into weak whines and whimpers. “No. No. No. No. Too much.” Keith finally croaked and Shiro’s heart cracked. He didn’t immediately draw Keith into a for a forgiving hug, because every now and again, Keith tried to kick at Shiro. He couldn’t cave in and let Keith think that this behavior was okay.

              “Too much? What’s too much?” Shiro finally asked, only for Keith to shake his head and whine. He struggled in Shiro’s grip, and Shiro finally let go for Keith to curl back onto the floor away from Shiro. He gripped at the ends of his hair and whimpered.

              “Keith? Honey, can you tell me what is too much?” Shiro asked softly, kneeling in front of Keith but careful to not actually touch the boy. Keith simply shook his head and sniffled into his arms. Shiro felt a lump in his throat.

              “Okay, you don’t have to say anything, alright? You can just nod or shake your head. Is that okay?” Shiro asked softly. After a few long seconds, Keith whined but actually gave a timid nod.

              “Okay. When you mean by too much, do you think me talking is too much right now?” Shiro asked only for Keith to shake his head quickly. “Okay, okay. Was dinner too much?” Again, Keith shook his head and whined.

              “Okay, was today too much for you?” Keith hesitated before quietly nodding and he whined again. Shiro let out a deep breath and ran his hand through his white bangs. _Okay, we got something._ “What about today? Was it people? A noise? Me? You?” Keith continued to nod his head repeatedly and Shiro was at a loss.

              “Can you explain?” Keith shook his head quickly. Slowly, Shiro backed off and nodded. “Okay, was it everything?”

              Keith hesitated before nodding timidly. Shiro sighed softly.

              “Alright. It was a bad day, wasn’t it?” Keith whined again and nodded causing Shiro to smile softly. “Yeah, it was a pretty bad day and I’m sorry it was all too much for you. That must have been very  hard to go through the _whole_ day feeling like this. Are you angry?”

              Keith nodded once.

              “And upset?”

              Another nod.

              “Okay, and that’s okay. You’re allowed to be upset and angry after a bad day.” Shiro nodded more to himself than Keith. “But what’s _not_ okay is to hit and try to hurt people, even if you’re having a bad day, do you understand?” Keith was slow in his reply but eventually he nodded firmly and Shiro could breathe a sigh of relief.

              “Okay, well, how about we come up with a sign. When you become too overwhelmed and it gets to be too much? Does that sound good?” Shiro scooted closer to Keith but refrained from touching him. Keith’s whines were dying down as were his tears and eventually he nodded. “Alright, how about you…how about you tap on your head twice, with both hands when it’s becoming too much? As a sign to say, “Daddy it’s a bad day and I need to calm down.” Okay? Then I’ll make sure you can go somewhere quiet and alone and there you can do what it takes to calm down? And if you want me to stay you let me know. How does that sound?”

              Keith eventually pulled his head from under his arms but he still didn’t look at Shiro. However, he did manage to nod a couple of times, before putting both hands on the sides of his head and tapping twice. Then he pushed his arms out towards Shiro, wanting to cuddle and Shiro was more than happy to hold his little boy.

              “Alright. Sounds like we got a good plan. You just let me know whenever a bad day comes.” Shiro said softly and rubbed his cheek against Keith. _Bad days were plenty to come, but hopefully with this, they wouldn’t be as bad._


End file.
